Chapter 1649 Frog [Extra]
Qi Baokai was born in a middle-class family in Qingpu District, Tianhai City.
His father is a well-known screenwriter and his mother is a high school music teacher.
His good family background enabled him to receive a good education from the day he was born. Under the influence of his parents, he tried both literature and music, but ultimately chose music.
When he was a teenager, his musical talent was recognized by his teachers and classmates at school. He was a popular musical genius. Countless young girls who were just beginning to fall in love became obsessed with him because of a violin performance he performed.
But when he grew up, his family suffered a sudden change. His father died of a serious illness, and the family was burdened with a large debt.
As a last resort, he had to temporarily give up his expensive music school studies and earn money to supplement his family income by performing music.
He has tried every way to make money, including hotels, nightclubs, and even street performances.
Whenever he had no work to do, he would take the violin given to him by his father and go to the intersection of Changning Street in Tianhai City to play music.
The elegant sound of the violin is particularly eye-catching on the streets of Tianhai City. The ethereal and pleasant music tells the inner sadness of this down-and-out musician.
Passersby always can't help but throw in some coins.
Gradually, a young girl began to appear among the crowd who came to listen to music.
When the violin sounded, she would always appear beside the street lamp on time, silently watching the young musician, and then wait until the performance was over, and then put a ten-yuan bill in his violin case.
After the music ended, she would leave immediately and never talked to the young people.
Gradually, the young people also noticed this special audience.
There had never been a single word of communication between the two of them, but he could feel that the girl understood his music.
A special feeling began to spread in my heart.
Qi Baokai couldn't help but secretly follow the girl to her residence after a performance and asked the neighbors about her name.
When he first learned that her name was Jiang Manshi, he couldn't help but reveal a knowing smile. That night, he was so excited that he even couldn't sleep all night.
The next day, Qi Baokai did not go to the bar to perform, but went directly to the intersection of Changning Street.
When the violin sounded, the girl appeared under the street light as before.
The sleeves of her off-white top were rolled up, revealing her white arms, and her calves were faintly visible under her knee-length khaki skirt. Under a round hat, also off-white but with a darker hue, was a face obsessed with music.
It seemed that the arrival of the girl made Qi Baokai play the violin more vigorously.
This time, after the performance, he spoke to the girl for the first time.
He said his name was Qi Baokai, and he wanted to treat the girl to a cup of coffee.
The girl agreed to his request, and when she looked at Qi Baokai with her bright big eyes, there was a special feeling in her.
Just like what happens to all young people in love.
The young girl is attracted to the down-and-out musician and they enter into a sweet, passionate love affair.
But soon, the relationship between the two was discovered by the girl's parents.
The girl's father ran a restaurant and had a considerable fortune. He had only one daughter and could not tolerate a poor and destitute violinist taking his daughter away.
The two could only meet secretly after that, trying to break the secular blockade through their own efforts.
But all this is meaningless in the face of the huge and cruel reality.
The girl's father quickly introduced her to a rich young man who was a good match for her, and asked someone to warn Qi Baokai.
When Qi Baokai returned home that day, he saw his house in a mess and his mother sitting on the bed crying with her face covered.
After his father's death, he once again felt a deep sense of powerlessness towards this world.
Real life is not a fairy tale.
The princess would not marry a poor scholar.
The ones who can be together are always prince and princess.
He thought he didn't have that kind of fate and it would never be his turn.
Love is always out of stock, what can he fight for?
On the day of the girl's wedding, he went to the bar alone and got himself drunk with the cheapest liquor.
After that, he never saw the girl again.
It is obvious that both of them live in the same city and their residential areas are no more than 30 kilometers apart in a straight line, but they are no longer in the same world.
This regretful relationship became an eternal pain in his heart.
From then on, the young violinist's music on the streets of Changning Street always carried a heartbreaking sound.
Qi Baokai never expected that he would become famous because of this.
People all want to listen to that kind of sad and broken piano sound. Perhaps everyone has regrets about love in their hearts.
He began to go in and out of various high-end venues, performing for those rich and powerful people, and received generous remuneration, and gained a small reputation in the performance circle of Tianhai City.
But he was alone until he was in his thirties and had no hope of marriage.
His love had died more than ten years ago, on the day Jiang Manshi got married.
In order to continue the family bloodline, his mother arranged one blind date after another for him.
None of the people he chose were the ones he liked, but they were all hardworking and capable women who could manage the household.
In order not to disappoint his mother's expectations, he finally chose a woman who seemed the most suitable, simply because she spoke very little and never interfered with what Qi Baokai did.
From then on, his life was the same as his parents'.
They got married, lived together, and had a lovely daughter.
He named his daughter Qi Nianshi. When his wife heard the name, she burst into tears, because her name also contained the word "poetry", so she mistakenly thought that this was her husband's way of expressing his love for her.
Qi Baokai poured all his affection into his daughter.
Life can be without love, but life always has to go on like this.
Work, earn money, support a family.
Eat, work, sleep, open your eyes, eat again, work, sleep.
Day after day, repeating every day, and then silently waiting for death to come.
Until one day, he participated in his daughter's music competition and met the woman he had been dreaming about again.
At that time, Qi Baokai was already in his forties. His hairline was much higher than before, his hair was gradually turning silver, and the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes were particularly obvious when he smiled.
The woman looked like she had long lost her glory. Although she was still dressed elegantly, there was an unconcealable fatigue in her eyes.
She also has her own children. Her daughter also came to participate in this competition and played the violin.
Even the tune was "Skylark", which he often played on Changning Street.
Qi Baokai's heart, which had been silent for nearly twenty years, began to beat when he met Jiang Manshi again.
His palms were sweating from nervousness, but Jiang Manshi in her seat didn't see her and was just applauding her daughter on the stage.
After the game, Qi Baokai mustered up his courage, handed his daughter to her teacher, and then chased after him.
Jiang Manshi led her daughter towards the car. Qi Bao ran over and squeezed out two words in a hoarse voice.
"and many more……"
Jiang Manshi turned around in surprise. Qi Baokai was extremely nervous. His heart was beating so fast that one could even clearly hear the "thump, thump" sound.
He had been looking forward to the reunion scene for nearly twenty years, and had imagined countless possibilities and Jiang Manshi's expression.
Happy, embarrassed, nervous, or angry at him for not having the courage to take him away.
But when he turned around to look at him, Jiang Manshi had a confused look on her face.
"Excuse me, sir, what can I do for you?"
Jiang Manshi asked with a puzzled look on her face. She looked at the middle-aged man in front of her who looked a little vicissitudes of life, and seemed to be trying hard to recall where she had seen this person before.
But this cold and confused look was like a sharp sword that pierced Qi Baokai's heart.
It has been twenty years since they last saw each other. He is no longer the young and handsome violinist, and she is no longer the young girl who would be moved by the sound of the violin.
The saddest thing is not resentment, not hatred, not all the words in the world.
But you are forgotten by the person who is unforgettable to you.
"Nothing...Nothing. Sorry, I got the wrong person."
Qi Baokai turned around and fled away.
After he left, Jiang Manshi took her daughter into the car. She couldn't help but cover her mouth and tears started to form in her eyes.
After returning, Qi Baokai began to fall into a state of confusion and absent-mindedness.
He would often stare at the violin in the room, or get distracted while crossing the street.
Realizing that something was wrong with him, his wife tried to comfort him, and even yelled and smashed things in the house in excitement.
But Qi Baokai remained indifferent. His heart was dead at this moment, and he seemed to care nothing about anything in this world.
Even when he saw his little daughter who was named after Jiang Manshi, he was afraid to approach her for fear of reminding him of Jiang Manshi.
His life seemed to be over.
A violinist named Qi Baokai wanted to die.
Until the apocalypse that covered the entire world came.
Those who wanted to die did not die, but those who did not want to die died.
His wife was the first to fall ill due to years of doing housework, and he was left with only an eight-year-old daughter.
It was not until this time that he began to panic and feel the fear of death.
It turns out that death is a way of escape.
Human death will only bring pain to those who love you.
The death of his wife made him panic-stricken, and he finally experienced severe loneliness after the death of his parents.
Only at this moment did he realize that the woman he had never loved had already become an indispensable part of his life.
In a man's life, he will encounter a white rose and a red rose.
No matter what choice he makes, he will regret it in the end.
If you choose the white rose, the white rose will become the dispensable rice grains at the corners of your mouth, and the lost red rose will become the cinnabar mole that cannot be erased from your heart.
If you choose the red rose, the cinnabar mole will turn into the disgusting mosquito blood on the wall, and the white rose will turn into the unforgettable white moonlight in your life.
He always missed the cinnabar mole he lost, but ignored the white rice beside him which tasted plain but he couldn't live without it.
After his wife died, he and his daughter depended on each other for survival.
But even though he tried his best to live with his daughter, the cruel world would not change according to human will.
Half a year after the end of the world, his daughter passed away peacefully on a cold night.
She died without pain in his arms. Compared to most people who died tragically in the apocalypse, she was happy.
Qi Baokai no longer had any attachment to life.
So he took his treasured violin and the recorder that his wife and daughter had picked out for him on his birthday that year, dug a deep hole in the snow, and buried himself.
Then, he turned into a frog, a frog that loved to sing, laugh, play music, and bring joy to everyone.
In countless lonely days and nights, only music and laughter can make people temporarily forget their worries and find joy.
